


Harry Potter and the Body Swapping Gender Realization

by elizabethemerald



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Body Swap, F/F, Trans Female Character, Trans Harry Potter, Trans Hermione Granger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27634718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethemerald/pseuds/elizabethemerald
Summary: A mysterious magic has affected the Champions of the Triwizard tournament, causing each Champion to swap with bodies with their date for the Yule Ball. When Harry Potter wakes up in the body of Padma Patil, it leads to some realizations about Harry's gender identity.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 81





	Harry Potter and the Body Swapping Gender Realization

**Body Swap**

Harry woke to the sense that something was wrong. He couldn’t say what exactly but he knew there was something off, and knew to trust his gut. He jumped out of bed, bringing his wand up on muscle memory. 

“Lumos!” He whispered. His voice sounded different in his ear. Not wrong, but different. 

He looked around in surprise. He was not in the 4th year boys dorm. If he were to guess he would say he was in the girl’s dorm? He glanced around quickly then down at himself. For some reason he had fallen asleep in what looked like Padma’s nightdress? He must have also fallen asleep with his glasses on again, because he could see perfectly. 

He hid his eyes from where the rest of his friends were still asleep and hurried out of the room. Ron would never let him live this down if he found out. He was a little surprised that the stairs didn’t transform into a slide like they had the one time he and Ron had attempted to wake Hermoine, but dismissed it in his still tired state. 

Harry ran across the Gryffindor common room, glad that for once everyone had decided to sleep in. He jogged up the stairs to the boy’s tower, trying to put together his fuzzy memories of what could have happened. Last night had been the Yule ball. He had very briefly danced with Padma, then had sat back to watch the rest of the night. He remembered feeling a little fuzzy at the end of the night, but he distinctly remembered falling asleep in his own bed. Not in Padma’s for whatever reason. 

He opened the door to the boy’s dorm as quietly as possible. He glanced at his own bed, there was someone asleep in his four poster. He leaned over whoever it was to wake them up. He needed to get changed quickly if he was to avoid the mockery of the other boys. He shook the person awake and was surprised to find a very familiar face turn towards him. His own. 

What followed was several minutes of confused screaming and shouting, before eventually all the fourth year boys found themselves down in the common room. In the light of the common room Harry finally got a good look at himself. He was definitely in Padma Patil’s body. And apparently she was in his. 

No one else was switched though so it appeared to be just the two of them. Ron’s mind seemed to be breaking from trying to figure out what was happening. Eventually the noise woke someone from the girl’s tower who ran back up the stairs to get Hermione. 

Harry stared at the ceiling. Being in Padma’s body felt so strange. He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think about how he felt, or why he felt that way. Padma was bundled up in as many blankets as possible with Harry’s glasses pressed up tightly to her face. His face? This was so confusing. 

A surly looking Hermione eventually stomped down the stairs. Her shoulders were rolled in towards her chest. Ron immediately jumped up to talk to Hermione, forgetting how rude he had been to her last night. 

“Oh thank goodness! Hermione! You have to know what is going on here, or something to fix it.”

“I. Do. Not know vat is going on.” The slow, halting way she said it, as if she wasn’t used to speaking the language. Ron looked befuddled for a moment before Harry leaned forward to address her. 

“Hermione?” She didn’t react like he was expecting. So he tried again. “Viktor?”

Ron’s jaw dropped. Hermione nodded. Padma gasped. 

Another round of shouting and screaming probably would have followed if at that moment the portrait door opened and in stepped none other than Viktor Krum. Or at least his body. 

“Oh thank goodness, you two are already here.” Viktor said in a tone that certainly didn’t match his hulking frame. Then he stopped dead at the sight of Hermione. A look of fear very unlike his usual expression filled his face. 

“Vat is happening.” Hermione’s body asked. There was an expression of anger on her face that while certainly familiar to Harry still didn’t match the way Hermione was usually angry. 

“Uh, I think we swapped bodies?” Padma said in Harry’s voice. “I’m Padma and that’s Harry.”

Viktor’s body glanced between the two of them in rising horror and fear, before approaching Hermione’s body. He raised a gentle hand to her face, while Ron glared in the background. 

“Viktor?” 

There was a trepidation in his voice that struck Harry. There was a layer of fear beyond what the situation called for. Hermione was genuinely afraid of Viktor being in her body. And her fear seemed fully justified when Krum turned away from his body with a snarl and a look of anger and possibly disgust. 

“Wait if the two of us are champions,” Harry said, trying take the focus away from his friend’s fears. “We need to check on Fleur and Cedric!” 

He immediately stood up, but almost fell over as his body stood and yelled at him. 

“You can’t leave dressed like that!” 

Harry looked down at himself. Padma wore a silky feeling nightdress, honestly Harry felt more comfortable dressed like this than he had in years, but he could understand that Padma wouldn’t want to walk through the whole school with her sleepwear on parade. He glanced around the room and quickly realized how big of a problem this was. Harry usually slept in a pair of boxers and thats it. Hermione slept in a pair of loose shorts and a tank top. He could only imagine what Viktor wore to sleep considering Hermione had actually thought to grab his robes when she left the Durmstrang Ship. 

“Uh. It might be a little complicated to change clothes?” Harry said, again finding his eyes on the ceiling. It would be pretty rude to Padma to change her clothes. The others seemed to come to the same conclusion quickly. Hermione especially seemed terrified of the idea. 

“Here I can…” Hermione pulled out Viktor’s wand, then looked at it confusion for a moment. It was about as different from her own wand as wands could be, short and rigid where her’s was long and flexible. She held it out trepidatiously to Viktor. He snatched his wand from her hand and almost threw hers in her face. Ron and Harry both stepped forward at that though neither were sure how they supposed to react. 

Hermione turned away, the small tears appearing in the corner of Viktor Krum’s eyes were almost completely alien to what Harry was familiar with from the stoic Quidditch player. There was something more going on but now wasn’t the time to address it. 

“We need to talk to Professor Dumbledore as soon as possible.” 

She began waving her wand in the air and the curtains separated from their hangers reshaping into over sized robes to cover the three of them. Only a few minutes later all four of them were standing inside Dumbledore’s study. Hermione had asked Ron to stay behind. Harry agreed and said they would explain everything later. 

Cedric and Cho were there and it was immediately obvious they had swapped as well. They both had similar quick made robes to give their partner privacy. Cho’s body paced back and forth around the room while Cedric’s sat and stared at the fire in Dumbledore’s fireplace. Karkaroff stood off to the side glaring at anyone and everyone. Eventually they were joined by Madame Maxime with Roger Davies in Fleur’s body. His robes were sewn shut and he kept his hands up in fear the entire time. Any time he so much as started to lower them Maxime would glare. Fleur arrived in Roger’s body wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. She had not stopped complaining in rapid French since she arrived. 

“I have never been this hideous before.” She was saying. Roger looked offended but didn’t dare to speak up. 

Finally Dumbledore arrived with Madam Pomfrey. The school nurse gave each of the champions and their respective partners a close examination. It wasn’t long until she reached the same explanation the rest of them had. 

“As far as I can tell all of the children are perfectly healthy, swapped bodies not withstanding.”

“This is most concerning. All four champions affected during a tournament already fraught with mysteries.” Dumbledore mused. 

Karkaroff and Madame Maxime took in turns to yell about what had happened. Harry leaned back against a wall and Hermione in Viktor’s body came and stood next to him. He could read her emotions a lot better when she was in her proper body, but he could tell she was on the edge of a panic attack. 

“Alright!” Dumbledore raised his voice a little over the other two head masters. “They are all healthy as far as we can tell. Forcing them to switch back may cause more harm. We can take them to St. Mungos but there is no way such a decision wouldn’t be noted by the press. I believe it is best to keep them here in the school, sequestered from the rest of the students, until we find a cause. They can stay in the infirmary until we have this sorted.”

“Uh quick question!” Cedric’s mannerisms in Cho’s body was very off putting. He looked around nervously as all the eyes flicked to him. “I haven’t gone to the bathroom since I woke up, and I’m not sure...how?”

The question ended all further debate. The champions and their partners were escorted to the infirmary. Pomfrey assisted each of them behind a curtain to change into appropriate clothes and relieve themselves.

Harry could tell Cedric was staring at the ceiling while he did as if it contained all the secrets of the universe. Then much to his embarrassment Cho got behind the curtain and started laughing uproariously. Some stared at the curtain, some at Cedric’s brilliant blush, and a few couldn’t decide where to look and ended up mimicking bobble heads as they kept turning this way and that. She was still laughing and wheezing when she stepped out from the curtains. 

“I’ve never peed with a penis before! That was a wild experience!” She said, dragging more laughs and snorts from the room. 

One by one the rest of them moved behind the curtain. Harry tried to keep his eyes on the ceiling as well, but couldn’t help a glance. Looking down at Padma’s body felt...right. Her dark skin matched his own, and if he didn’t know better he would say this is how he was always so supposed to look. He didn’t dwell on the thought too long and hurried to get dressed again and leave the curtained area. 

Padma thankfully didn’t make any comment or joke about Harry’s body instead she settled on one of the beds in the infirmary after she was dressed and wrapped herself in multiple blankets. Fleur maintained her constant stream of complaints while she and Roger changed. Roger nervously staring at the ceiling under the watchful eye of Madam Maxime. 

Hermione looked like she was going to get sick when it came for her turn to change. Madam Pomfrey whispered quietly to her while she changed. When she was done she waited by the curtained area for Krum to come up. She tried to have a whispered conversation with him when he walked past but he ignored her and drew the curtain closed in her face. 

She left and mistakenly stepped up to Padma, before realizing her mistake and coming to sit next to Harry. It felt strange to have Viktor Krum sit next to him and lean gently on his shoulder but he knew it was really Hermione in there so he accepted it and leaned back against her. 

“Harry, why are you always so cold?” Padma asked, stealing another blanket from one of the infirmary beds to wrap around herself. Harry could only shrug. Cold was a constant companion during winter, ever since he was a kid living in the cupboard under the stairs with a few ratty blankets. He presumed he was still too skinny from living with the Dursley’s, even after four years at Hogwarts. He would probably tell Padma that later, but didn’t want to share everything he went through with the other champions. 

When Viktor emerged from the curtain, Hermione again went up to him. She was holding a small flask of potion she had gotten from Madam Pomfrey. Harry could barely hear her talking to him. 

“Please you need to take this potion. You need to take it every day or you will get sick. Please, I know I didn’t want to have this conversation, but please just take the potion.”

Hermione was begging him. He snatched the potion out of her hands and turned his back, but Harry saw him down the potion a few minutes later. Hermione returned to Harry’s side, she seemed to be barely keeping herself together. It was strange, he had seen her face the worst kinds of situations and stay calm. But there was something about being in Krum’s body that she couldn’t handle. 

*pop*

Everyone looked around the room at the strange sound. Fleur and Roger both looked up in confusion, before looking down at themselves. Roger sighed in relief and Fleur cheered, both now apparently in their correct bodies. 

*pop* *pop*

Cedric and Cho smiled and laughed as they went back to their bodies. Hermione had tears spring to her eyes to be back in her body, while Krum leaned away from Harry. 

*pop*

The sensation of switching back to his own body was utterly bizarre one. Harry couldn’t quite figure out what to compare it to, it wasn’t anything like traveling by portkey or anything else he had experienced. The closest he could say was the sensation of one of the ghosts passing through your body. 

He was back in his body, looking out through his own eyes, now wrapped in four different blankets. He released a soft sigh and began to untangle himself from the blankets. He felt strange. He had only been in Padma’s body for a couple of hours, but it now felt weird to be back in his own body. Like there was something missing that he had only glimpsed. 

The rest of the the champions quickly left the infirmary, desperate to put the strange experience behind them. Harry hung back to wait for Hermione. She was having another whispered conversation with Krum. 

“I vill not tell anyone. I need time to think.” Viktor said as he walked flatfooted out of the infirmary, leaving Hermione behind. She had tears in her eyes and was desperately trying to wipe her face to stem the flow. 

“Do you want to talk?” Harry asked. He glanced at Madam Pomfrey and she smiled and opened her office for them to talk privately. He probably knew the school nurse better than just about any other student considering his numerous visits in the past three years. 

As soon as the door closed behind them Hermione burst into sobbing tears. She flung her arms around Harry’s narrow shoulders and sobbed against him. He awkwardly held her while she cried, his thoughts hanging on the strange experience. Eventually her crying slowed and she leaned back. 

“Today was…” She hesitated, as if looking for words. 

“Alot.” Harry finished. He looked down at himself. “Being in Padma’s body … felt … strange.”

Hermione tilted her head to the side as she looked at him. 

“Good strange or bad strange?” Her voice was quiet, as if she was afraid of what he might say. 

“I don’t know.” Harry said. “It kind of felt… like flying.”

She just looked a question at him as Harry tried to find a way to explain it. 

“When I first got on a broom when we were in our first year, it felt amazing. Like a piece of my life had always been missing and had finally slotted into place. Playing in quidditch the past three years, even with everything that’s gone wrong during matches, has been one of the best parts of my time here. And I felt even better knowing my dad played for the Gryffindor team. Then today, the way my voice sounded, the way I looked, how long my hair was, it all felt that same way. Like a piece was falling into place.”

Hermione looked at him quietly, carefully considering his words. 

“Harry, are you trans?” 

“Is that something like Parseltongue? Or some other wizarding thing I haven’t heard of?”

“Its actually a muggle term, short for transgender.”

“I remember the Dursley’s saying something similar to that, but the way they said it made it sound like an insult.”

“No! This isn’t an insult!” Hermione blanched. “What your Aunt or Uncle might have said may be an insult, but a person who is transgender is… well… like me.”

Harry looked at her with raised eyebrows, but she couldn’t see him. She kept her head down, a curtain of her hair in front of her face. 

“When I was born, the doctors thought I was a boy.” The words seemed to grate out of her, like they were physically painful. “They made a mistake. When I was older I spent some time in my local library doing some research and I figured out a lot about myself.”

The fact that Hermione’s journey of self discovery started with research in a library literally could not surprise Harry less. He listened intently to what she was saying, feeling like a key was turning in a lock with each word. 

“Sometimes it seems, people are born with bodies that don’t match their minds, or their souls. I’m one of those people. It always made me sick when people called me a boy or anything like that. So when I got my letter to Hogwarts I told McGonagall that I was a girl and she made sure to put me in the girl’s dorm. And then today…”

“Today you were put into a boy’s body. That must have been awful, I’m so sorry Hermione.”

“You don’t hate me now that you know I’m trans?”

“Why would I hate you? You’re the most amazing witch I’ve ever met! And one of my best friends, I never would have made it as far as I have without you.”

“Oh, Harry!” She grabbed him in another tight hug. “I should have known you would be supportive. Though I think you might want to do some research on gender yourself.”

“Yeah, I’ll add it to the research list.” Harry said with a smile, returning Hermione’s hug. 

* * *

In time Harry is able to come to an understanding of his gender. Or I should say  _ Her _ gender. After talks with Hermione and some time spent in the library, she realizes she is transgender, just like her friend. She talks to McGonagall and at the start of her fifth year moves into the girl’s dorm tower. She joins Hermione in taking the potion every day, that will slowly help change her body to be more feminine. 

Somewhere in the next three years Ginny Weasly realizes she is just as attracted to the  _ Girl who lived _ as she was before. Hermione tells her Muggles call it bisexual, something Hermione is also well aware of, considering her own attraction to one Luna Lovegood that grows over the next few years as well, eventually blossoming into love. 

**Author's Note:**

> So I want to point out Krum isn't a bad guy and certainly isn't a transphobe. However I doubt that Durmstrang had any classes on accepting people's differences. So it was a little bit of a shock. By the conclusion of the Triwizard Tournament he is supportive of Hermione and they remain pen pals as in canon. Also Ginny is totally bi, and would totally love it if Harry started presenting more feminine.


End file.
